In search of the true shade of red: the tragedy of Lalgarh

ARTICLE (Vol. 1, Issue 1, August 2009)

Mukul Sinha

It took more than 40 years for the CPI(Maoist), the metamorphosis of CPI(ML), to prove that history does indeed repeat itself but when it does, it does so as farce. In 1967, the peasant uprising in Naxalbari sent red jitters all over the country, while in 2009 the red has faded out in a place ironically called Lalgarh!

In April, 1969, the CPI(ML) was born out of the CPI(M) as an aftermath of the Naxalbari uprising in 1967. A section of the CPI(M) led by Charu Mazumdar and Kanu Sanyal the Siliguri District Committee of the CPI(M), supported a violent peasant uprising in 1967, in "revolutionary opposition" to the CPI(M) leadership. Led by Charu Mazumdar, initially an All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries was formed in November 1967, as an inner-party pro-China splinter-faction of the CPI(M). On April 22, 1969 the AICCCR formed the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), breaking away from the CPI(M)

The insoluble contradiction and the pathological hatred between the CPI(M) and CPI(Maoist) in 2009, goes back to these formative years. With time, the differences multiplied between the two parties, with the CPI(M) preferring the parliamentary path towards “socialism” and the CPI(ML), later on the CPI(Maoist), opting for revolutionary “armed struggle”. On the land question, the protagonists of Naxalbari declared the appropriation of land by the use of revolutionary force whereas the CPI(M) chose to carry out the land reform in accordance with law that partially led to their vote bank amongst the Bengal peasantry for 30 years.

Nandigram and Singur have however changed that cultivated pro-peasantry image of the CPI(M). The bankrupt policy of the CPI(M) to ally with the big Indian bourgeoisie and global capital to fuel their industrial development dug their grave in Lalgarh too. The tragedy is that the Maoists are lending a helping hand to the Trinamool Congress to dig that grave. Stuck to the jungles in search of their semi-feudal line, the Maoist put into practice their theory of “annihilation of class enemies” on the fattened cadre of CPI(M) and slaughtered several of them. What a farce my comrades!

The two leading “communist parties” of India going for each others jugular in Lalgarh would have warmed the hearts of the rightists but for their own deep differences. After the debacle in the 15^th Loksabha elections, the rath of L.K.Advani seems to have got stuck in the virulent mud of failed Hindutva. Varun Gandhi’s limb-chopping histrionics did not disturb the minority moral whatsoever; in fact such vulgarity united the minorities behind Congress and chopped off whatever little chance the BJP had to come near the power centre.

And who is smiling? Take a look at Manmohan Singh; or even Mamta. They are grinning and busy demolishing the left and posing as the allies of the poor peasants! Strange are the changes bourgeois elections can bring about within a short period. The centrist party that was struggling against the onslaught of the left and the right, leapfrogged into the seat of power. Symbolically Tatas may nurture their Nano in either West Bengal or Gujarat, bastions of the left and right respectively, but the Big Bourgeoisie of India has obviously chosen Congress to bat for them.

While the Indian big bourgeoisie, their loyal agent Congress and its allies like Trinamool are consolidating their positions, it is a tragedy that the left forces are in such disarray. Instead of alleviating the sufferings of the Adivasis of Lalgarh, the Maoist have only aggravated their agony and shockingly, it is the CPI(M) which is responsible for their suffering in the first place. In the confusion of colours at Lalgarh, will the people find the true shade of red?